Semalt is a webmaster keyword ranking analytics tool and provider of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, but it’s not there services that are making the news for them, it’s their site.\n\nMaybe you’ve noticed in your statistics for your website, semalt.semalt.com or varying numbers followed by semalt.com, clogging up your referrers, and messing with your visits and bounce rate. We personally have seen a highly negative effect on our bounce rate, as well as upto 20 visits a day from their crawler.\n

But Why are they Crawling Sites?

\nFrom Semalt.com’s Crawler Page:\n

According to the software algorithm Semalt crawler bots visit website and gather statistical data for our service simulating real user behavior: unique IP, browser, display resolution etc. This information is used exclusively within the Semalt.com project and isn’t revealed to a third-party.

\nThis means that they are Crawling sites, to get data based on your systems through varying different interfaces, allowing them to get an overall idea of your site’s performance. From there, most can assume that they use that data as comparisons for their own customers, though this may not be the case, we will never know.\n

How Do We Block Semalt?

\nIf you are getting annoyed with Semalt’s Crawler tainting your statistics, you can do something about it. One Company has gone so far as to send a cease and desist letter, but for most, there are 3 simple ways forward.\n

Requesting Removal

\nSemalt have a form that allow you to request removal from there crawler, though according to some internet users, it isn’t 100% affective, and may even cause the crawlers to focus more on your site. It also requires all subdomains to be listed separately. You can find the removal request here.\n

 .htaccess Block

\nAdd the following code to your .htaccess file, which will prevent semalt.com and any of its subdomains from viewing your site:\n

RewriteEngine on\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} semalt\.com [NC]\nRewriteRule .* – [F]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} semalt\.semalt\.com [NC]

\nIf you have a wordpress site, use the below instead, generally below # END WordPress:\n

SetEnvIfNoCase Via evil-spam-proxy spammer=yes\nSetEnvIfNoCase Referer evil-spam-domain.com spammer=yes\nSetEnvIfNoCase Referer evil-spam-keyword spammer=yes\nSetEnvIfNoCase Via pinappleproxy spammer=yes\nSetEnvIfNoCase Referer semalt.com spammer=yes\nSetEnvIfNoCase Referer poker spammer=yes\n\nOrder allow,deny\nAllow from all\nDeny from env=spammer

\n

Removing Data From Google Analytics

\nYou can use Google’s Segment Tools to allow you to hide data on your analytics based on specific criteria.\n\nAdd Remove Semalt Segment\n\nUse the link above to get the segment onto your system.\n\nsemalt_exclusionFollow these steps to view your data:\n

    \n

  1. Click the ‘Choose segment from List’

    2. \n

  2. Select ‘Custom’

    3. \n

  3. Tick the Checkbox, then apply.

    4. \n

\nYou’ll see the data as compared to all your stats.\n

Conclusion

\nAs seen since they started, Semalt are very sneaky, and are very capable when it comes to getting around these blocks, so we will try to keep this article up to date with any new news, and any updates from other web developers.